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  1. HALÉVY, Jacques-François-Fromental-Élie.

    Autograph musical quotation, signed.

    Paris, 15 May 1846.

    Fromental Halévy (1799–1862) showed musical promise at an early age and entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1810, becoming a pupil of Cherubini for composition the following year. In 1827 he became professor of harmony and accompaniment there, in 1833 of counterpoint and fugue, and in 1840 of composition....

    £750

  2. EHRLICH, Paul.

    Autograph letter, signed, addressed to ‘herr hospitalmeister’.

    [Frankfurt,] ‘Westendstrasse 62’, [no date].

    A brief note by the bacteriologist Paul Ehrlich (1854–1915), pioneer of haematology and discoverer of salvarsan, to a local hospital director, regarding notes on the bulletin board.

    £750

  3. DUMAS, Alexandre.

    Autograph letter, signed.

    [Paris, not before 1859.]

    A short note by the novelist and playwright Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870) sending a theatre ticket and arranging to meet the unknown recipient at the Comédie-française (‘theatre francais’) at midday the following day. He says that he will do whatever he can to obtain a small box at the Théâtre...

    £750

  4. DISRAELI, Benjamin.

    Autograph envelope signed.

    [Probably London, c. 1874–1880.]

    An envelope probably dating from Disraeli’s second premiership (1874–1880). Lady Emily Peel (1836–1924) was the seventh daughter of the eighth marquess of Tweeddale. Lady Emily Hay, as she then was, married the politician Sir Robert Peel, third baronet, on 13 January 1856, but she left her husband...

    £100

  5. DAVY, Sir Humphry.

    Autograph letter, signed, to Charles Stuart, 1st Baron Stuart de Rothesay, discussing the unrolling of papyri...

    ‘23 Grosvenor Street London’, 26 May 1821.

    An unpublished letter in which Davy discusses his examination of papyri entrusted to him in Paris by Sir Charles Stuart, then British Ambassador to France.

    £750

  6. CROOKES, William, Sir.

    Autograph letter, signed, to Sir John Evans.

    London, 7 Kensington Park Gardens, 26 May 1892.

    The scientist Sir William Crookes writes to congratulate the archaeologist and geologist John Evans on his imminent knighthood: ‘I must take this opportunity – the last perhaps in which I can call you “Mr” – to offer you my sincere congratulations on the honour which I see is to be conferred...

    £250

  7. CHERUBINI, Luigi.

    Autograph note signed ‘L. Cherubini’ regarding the cellist Auguste Franchomme.

    [Paris,] 19 December 1825.

    A short note in which the composer and director of the Conservatoire de Paris Luigi Cherubini records that ‘Mr. Franchomme’ has been admitted into the class of ‘Mr. Seuriot’ and that he will begin there on 22 December 1825.

    £350

  8. BUNSEN, Christian Karl Josias von.

    Autograph letter unsigned to the publishers Longman & Co.

    [London,] Carlton Terrace, 12 February 1845.

    ‘Chev[alie]r Bunsen presents his compliments to Messrs. Longman & Co. and begs to state in answer to their note of this day, that he has written the answer under the enclosed paper from Paris.’

    £150

  9. BOWMAN, William, Sir.

    Autograph letter, signed, to ‘Mr Cooke’.

    [London?,] 18 January 1870.

    Bowman writes to ‘Mr Cooke’ to postpone a visit, having heard from ‘Mr Webb’ that he is to give evidence at a trial. ‘Mr Webb proposes Thursday week the 27th on which day we could be with you at the hour previously arranged for, supposing the day quite suits you.’

    £200

  10. BONAPARTE, Jerôme-Napoléon.

    Letter signed as governor of Les Invalides to the members of the Conseil d’administration de la...

    Paris, Hôtel des Invalides, 16 February 1849.

    Jérôme-Napoléon Bonaparte (1784–1860) was the youngest brother of Napoleon I and reigned as Jerome Napoleon I, King of Westphalia, between 1807 and 1813. He became governor of Les Invalides when his nephew Prince Louis Napoleon became president of the second French Republic in 1848.

    £300

  11. BELL, Charles, Sir.

    Letter signed to ‘the Treasurer of the Committee for Mr Macleay’s Portrait’.

    Soho Square, London, 18 March [probably 1824 or 1825].

    The neurophysiologist Sir Charles Bell (1774–1842) ‘begs the Committee will put his name down as a subscriber for the Portrait of Alexander Macleay Esq.’. The portrait in question is doubtless the one painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence in 1825 and now in the Linnean Society.

    £375

  12. BONET, Nicolas.

    Habes Nicholai Bonetti viri p[er]spicacissimi quattuor volumina: Metaphysicam videl[icet] naturale[m] phylosophia[m]...

    Venice, Boneto Locatello for the heirs of Ottaviano Scoto, 1505.

    First collected edition of the works of the French Franciscan Friar Nicolas Bonet (c. 1280–1343), owned and annotated by the Italian historian, biographer, and physician Paolo Giovio (1486–1552).

    £4000

  13. KEATE, George. 

    An Account of the Pelew Islands, situated in the western part of the Pacific Ocean: composed from the journals...

    Dublin, Luke White, 1788. 

    First Dublin edition of this popular work, first published in London earlier the same year, by the virtuoso George Keate, member of the Royal Society and Society of Antiquities (1729−1797). 

    £650

  14. [JAMIESON, John.] 

    Congal and Fenella; A Tale in Two Parts. 

    London, C. Dilly, 1791. 

    First and only edition of Jamieson’s Scottish epic, bound with an early edition of Gray’s Poems

    £250

  15. [PAPER TRADE.] 

    Arrest du conseil d’état du roi, portant modération et interprétation de plusieurs articles du tarif des...

    [Besançon?, 1772?] 

    A seemingly unrecorded issue of this decree governing tariffs on paper and cardboard in Louis XV’s France, with no imprint but with the colophon ‘fait à Besançon le 18 avril 1772, signé, Lacoré’. 

    £175

  16. [BOLOGNA.] 

    Delle oggetti di belle arti nel famoso Tempio di S. Paolo in Bologna e delle vicissitudini di esso brevi notizie. 

    Bologna, ‘nella stamperia di San Tommaso d’Aquino’, 1831. 

    First edition of this detailed description of the Baroque masterpieces in the church of San Paolo Maggiore (or San Paolo Decollato) in Bologna, among them works by Guercino and Cavedoni. 

    £275

  17. HELMAN, Isidore-Stanislas-Henri.

    Faits mémorables des empereurs de la Chine, tirés des annales Chinoises, dédiés à Madame,...

    Paris, chez l’auteur … et chez M. Ponce, [1788].

    Two handsome engraved works by the French engraver and printseller Helman (1743–1806/9), here on uncut sheets, the first depicting scenes from Chinese history, the second episodes in the life of Confucius (Kong Fuzi).

    £6000

  18. CAMBOUT, Sébastien Joseph du, and John EVELYN (attributed translator)].

    The moral Practice of the Jesuites. Demonstrated...

    London, Printed for Simon Miller, at the Star at the West-end of St. Paul’s, 1670.

    First edition in English of La morale pratique des Jesuites (1669), a polemical Jansenist critique of Jesuit practices intended to ‘inspire the World, and the Jesuites themselves, with horror at their detestable Morality’ (p. [4]).

    £700

  19. MARINIS, Dominico de. 

    Dissertatio philosophico-medica de re monstrosa à Capuccino Pisauri per urinam excreta.  Plura de sanguinis...

    Rome, typis Iacobi Mascardi ... sumptibus Ben Carrarae, 1678. 

    First edition of this scarce dissertation on worms focussing on the extraordinary case of a Capuchin preacher from Pesaro who in 1677 passed a ‘monster’ worm in his urine, which upon subsequent examination was declared to be a serpent. 

    £1850

  20. [COOK, James, and Jean-François de Galaup, Comte de la PÉROUSE.]

    Tableau des decouvertes du Capne. Cook, & de la Pérouse....

    S. Sauveur, l’an 7 de la République Française [1798-1799].

    A splendid hand-coloured engraving depicting indigenous peoples of the Pacific and beyond, drawn from the voyages of James Cook (1728–1779) and La Pérouse (1741–1788), and published by the Canadian-born writer, artist and diplomat, Jacques Grasset de Saint-Saveur (1757–1810).

    £1500